Monday, October 31, 2005

Bush has a new Supreme Court nominee: Sam Alito. An index of where he stands, relative to the judicial mainstream, is his opinion which would have overturned the Family Medical Leave Act --- if it were not overturned by a 6-3 Supreme Court Majority whose opinion was written by Rehnquist. In this case, Alito used a remarkably narrow view of the restrictions of the act, and his own gut feelings about what was a "proportional" response to the need for new mothers to care for their infants, to say that Congress had no right to pass laws about the subject.

But while he may have trampled all over the legislature in this case, he's very unlikely to overturn legislation favored by Republicans. So, you can expect lots of press over the next few weeks explaining that he's not a judicial activist.